Delhi plans and designs major urban traffic interchanges

Planning and Design of Major Urban Traffic Interchanges in Delhi

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Introduction

Sometimes urban infrastructures for facilitating traffic are created for a specific purpose. New flyovers and traffic interchanges were created for the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi as mobility was perceived by the organizers as a "risk area" since parts of Delhi are indeed "difficult and congested."

Being large and costly projects, traffic interchanges must have relevance and legacy value for the city when the specific purpose for which they were built no longer exists.

In the case of Delhi the sustainability dimension has to be specifically kept in view in the planning and design of major urban traffic interchanges in the city because it is host to a large number of heritage buildings and historical monuments. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) lists some 174 monuments on their website. A highly sensitive approach is required to be taken for their physical and visual preservation.

There is no sustainability criteria like LEEDS (applicable essentially to buildings) which can be employed in the assessment of infrastructure projects like flyovers and traffic interchanges. Some examples of recently constructed major urban traffic interchanges in Delhi are discussed briefly in the paper.